(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording device such as an ink jet printer, and more particularly, to an ink jet recording device having a recovery function for recovering or restoring a printing function of an ink head.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A non-impact recording technique has the advantage in that very little noise is generated in a recording operation, and has become popular in recent years. Among other non-impact recording devices, an ink jet recording device is especially superior in that it is capable of directly printing onto a recording sheet at a high speed and with a simple mechanism Various proposals have been made thereto.
In a conventional ink jet printer using the ink jet recording technique, foreign materials such as paper powder may adhere onto the nozzle surface of the ink head. If the ink adhered onto the nozzle surface dries or increases in stickiness, an ink ejection nozzle of the nozzle surface becomes clogged to cause defective ejections. For preventing such defective ejections, some ink jet printers have a recovery function wherein the ink staying in the nozzles is absorbed by a pump towad the ink chamber during a standby mode of the printer after the nozzles are closed by cap members, and the nozzle surface is then wiped for cleaning by a wiper.
A conventional ink jet printer having a recovery function is described in JP-A-8-187869. The ink jet printer described therein prevents ink scattering and color mixing while preventing the ink nozzles on the nozzle surface from clogging by using the recovery function. Ink scattering signifies a problem in which the printing quality is deteriorated because the ink attached to the wiper after cleaning the nozzle surface is scattered onto a recording sheet dug the contact of the wiper with the ink head. Color mixing signifies a problem in which the printing quality is deteriorated by the movement of dark colored ink into an ejection nozzle for light colored ink and subsequent ejection of the resultant turbid color ink at the start of the print operation, which is generally caused by the wiping of the nozzle surface wherein the ink nozzles for different colored ink are disposed adjacent to one other.
The conventional ink jet printer as described above alleviates the problematic ink scattering and color mixing by using a recovery system wherein the wiper touches the nozzle surface only when it is necessary for the recovery function. The recovery system requires a transfer mechanism for transferring the rotation of the drive motor for moving the wiper to the nozzle surface, which increases, however, the number of constituent elements in the ink jet printer and involves an cost increased thereof.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording device having an improved recovery system for suppressing the generation of ink scattering and color mixing, which also reduces the fabrication cost by simplifying the moving mechanism for the wiper.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording device which simplifies the moving mechanism for a cap member for closing an in nozzle of the ink head.
The present invention provides an ink jet recording device comprising a base, an ink head assembly slidably supported by the base for moving between an operational area for ink ejection and a standby area for recovery operation, the ink head assembly having an ink head for ejecting ink through an ink ejection nozzle, a wiper assembly including a wiper element for wiping the ink ejection nozzle and a wiper support for supporting the wiper element, the wiper support being moved by movement of the ink head assembly to carry the wiper element between a contact position wherein the wiper element is in contact with the ink ejection nozzle and a non-contact position wherein the wiper element is not in contact with the ink ejection nozzle.
In accordance with the ink jet recording device of the present invention, the recovery operation can be effected by the movement of the ink head assembly itself, which reduces the constituent elements of the ink jet recording device and reduces the power consumption for the recovery operation.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings.